Palacio Arzobispal - Seville

The Archbishop's Palace is located next to the cathedral, the Giralda and the Reales Alcázares and is one of the great unknowns.

With a fantastic Baroque exterior, it is rarely visited and only partially. It is a building to be appreciated from three points of view: the building itself, the artistic heritage it contains and its cultural heritage, because it houses one of the best ecclesiastical archives . It is not without reason that it is considered the third largest art gallery in the city, after the Museum of Fine Arts and the Cathedral, with works by Murillo, Zurbarán, Juan de Espinal and Lucas Valdés, among others.

The main entrance , on the south side, was made by the master stonemason Lorenzo Fernández de Iglesias.

The building is spread over two large courtyards and other smaller courtyards with gardens at the rear. The main Baroque elements are the monumental staircase , the facades and the two front facades, the most important of which is truly majestic.

Of all the rooms in the Archbishop's Palace , the chapel in the courtyard of the Apeadero stands out , and in the second courtyard, located to the north, the Salón de Santo Tomás, the Salón Principal, the Salón del Trono, the Gallery of the Prioress, the hall for the oratorio and the Oratorio.

Exceptionally , in the 19th century, the palace was the General Command during the French occupation and occasionally the residence of the Dukes of Montpensier when they arrived in the city.

Where the third patio of the palace is currently located, to the north, in the part adapted as Hotel Los Seises, remains of the Roman hydraulic infrastructure (possibly a thermal complex) from the 2nd and 3rd centuries were found between 1990 and 1991 ad. The area was abandoned during the Muslim era until the Aljama Mosque was built in the last third of the 12th century. In the Almohad era, there must have been several walkways and residential buildings where the palace is currently located.

Willem Vandenameele